Here is a pretty sweet fútbol (soccer) goal from Freddy Adu in the under 20 World Cup in Montreal against Poland. Adu had 3 goals in a 6-1 win.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-i0IZZ-yaUU[/youtube]

Attention Red Sox Nation!!!!

Keep the votes coming for Hideki “Darkman” Okajima. The strong voting effort has put Okajima in the lead over Jeremy Bonderman. Pat Neshek is 3rd, Kelvim Escobar is 4th and Roy Halladay is bringing up the rear.

So Red Sox Nation International and here in the United States, keep voting. Vote as many times as you can.

Vote for OKIE!!!

 

 

Julio Lugo broke a serious slump with a pair of hits and two RBI and Jason Varitek also drove in two runs as the Red Sox behind 8 shut out innings from Daisuke Matsuzaka sunk the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 4-1 at Fenway Park. Matsuzaka was impressive once again picking up his 10th win of the year while only allowing 4 hits, 1 walk and 9 K’s and looks like a serious All-Star game snub. He will go for win #11 on Sunday in Detroit.

In what started like it might be a pitcher’s duel in the Fens between Matsuzaka and Scott Kazmir (5-5 4.28 ERA), turned ugly for the Tampa ace in the second inning.

After a quick 1-2-3 first for Kazmir he got a Kason of the Gabbard’s and walked the bases loaded to start the second. Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell were all issued free passes. Jason Varitek then hit a sure fire double play ball to second baseman Ty Wiggington who booted it and was only able to get the out at first allowing Ramirez to score and give the Sox a 1-0 lead. With runners at 2nd and 3rd Wily Mo Pena would then strike out. This would bring up Julio Lugo starring at a 0 for 33 streak and it looked as if Kazmir might escape with only one run being run allowed. But with the cheers of pink hats raining down upon him Lugo, who hadn’t had a base hit since June 14th, would drive one up the middle and give the Sox a 3-0 lead. Lugo would smile, the pink hats roared their approval and the Hallelujah Choir sang. JUL-IO LUGO, JUL-IO LUGO, HALLELUJAH, JULIO LUGO, HALL-E-LU-JAH!!!!!!!

On the other side Matsuzaka (10-5 3.53 ERA) would cruise through the first three innings allowing only two out singles in the first to Brendan Harris and in the second to Delmon Young. He also had one strike out in each inning and the Rays went 1-2-3 in the third.

In the home half of the third it looked as if the Sox might get Kazmir on the ropes again as Dustin Pedroia led off with a single but was quickly erased when David Ortiz grounded into a double play and then Ramirez ended the inning with a ground out.

Matsuzaka was doing his part after a 1-2-3 4th inning in which he had the last two outs on whiffs of Brendan Harris and Greg Norton he had set down seven Tampa hitters in-a-row and had retired 12 of the first
14 hitters.

Kazmir looked to have settled down after the rough first inning. He got two quick outs in the 4th striking out Youkilis and getting Lowell to fly to right. Varitek followed with an excuse me single to right and Pena would go down hacking for the second time on the night to end the frame.

Daisuke started the fifth with his sixth K of the evening, this time getting Wiggington, he would snap is streak of 8 retired in-a-row when he hit Young with a pitch. Matsuzaka would come back to strike out Jonny Gomes and with Dioner Navarro at the plate Varitek would throw out Young trying to steal second to end the inning.

Kazmir started the fifth at 80 pitches and would strike out Lugo, then give up a double down the left field line to Coco Crisp but the Sox would strand him as Pedroia and Ortiz would each ground out.

Matsuzaka would start and end the sixth would a pair of fine defensive plays. First he made a nice stab on a high bouncer and threw out Navarro. Akinori Iwamura who had struck out his first two times at bat would hit the ball off the wall and was nearly thrown out at second by Crisp but Pedroia couldn’t hold the ball after making a quick sweep tag. Carl Crawford would line out to Youkilis and then Harris would line out softly to Matsuzaka to end the threat.

In the sixth the Sox would add a run to their lead when with one out Youkilis would single to left off of Iwamura’s glove. Lowell would get an infield hit to third and then the runners would move up a base when Iwamura threw the ball into the photographer’s well. Varitek would then hit a sac fly to right to score Youk for his 2nd RBI of the night and Pena would go down swinging for the third time on the night. At this time I could smell a “Golden Sombrero”.

The seventh would see Matsuzaka walk his first batter, issuing a lead off free pass to Carlos Pena. But Norton, who struck out his first two times, would hit into a 4-6-3 twin killing and Wiggington would ground out to Lugo and the Rays were done.

Lugo would greet Jason Hammel with his second hit of the night (quick someone check to see if the space aliens are landing) and then get promptly picked off when he started to steal and then just changed his mind and couldn’t get back to first. Hammel would issue back-to-back walks to Crisp and Pedroia, then get back-to-back strikeouts of Ortiz and Ramirez to end the inning.

Matsuzaka would start the 8th striking out Young, Gomes singled on a two strike pitch and stole second. Navarro would fly out to center moving Gomes to third but the Rays would leave him there when Iwamura would whiff for his third time on the night and Matsuzaka’s 9th K of the game and his final out. He would head off to a standing ovation.

Shawn Camp would pitch the 8th for the Rays. After getting Youkilis to ground out and striking out Lowell, Varitek would walk giving Pena his shot at the Golden Sombrero. After being up in the count Wily Mo would not disappoint as he ended up whiffing for the fourth time in four plate appearances on the night.

After throwing 122 pitches that was the end of Matsuzaka, so Jonathan Papelbon came on in a non-save situation to pitch the ninth. Paps blew threw the first two Tampa batters whiffing Crawford and getting Harris to fly to Crisp. But Boston native Pena would break up the shut out with his 19th HR of the year down the right field line cutting the lead to 4-1. Papelbon came right back and closed out the Rays when he got Norton to pop out to Lowell to end the game.

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While I was doing the Red Sox News & Notes post for today, I came across a few errors. So as usual, I felt like I had to present them to you. The first one comes from the Star-Telegram.

Josh Beckham??? Someone has David Beckham on their mind.

The second comes to you by way of the Dallas Morning News.

A 3-RBI single would be an awesome thing to happen. To bad it was a 3-RBI triple.

Attention Red Sox Nation!!

It’s time to get off our collective asses and keep voting for Hideki “Darkman” Okajima to be the 32nd man on the AL All-Star team. Right now, early polls have Detroit’s Jeremy Bonderman leading over Okajima. Pat Neshek is 3rd, Roy Halladay is 4th and Kelvim Escobar is bringing up the rear. You can vote as many times as you want.

We want our Okie Dokie representing the 617 area code and all of Japan at the game. So fellow Japanese Red Sox fans and Red Sox Nation, let’s vote our boy to San Fran.

As Papelbon said, “Vote our man to San Fran, it’s close to Japan.”

Vote for OKIE!!!

 

Attention Red Sox Nation!! Attention Red Sox Nation!! May I have your attention please!

Hideki “Darkman” Okajima needs our help in order to make the 2007 AL All-Star team and join his five teammates in San Francisco. The Red Sox had Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez make the team. Big Papi was voted in by the fans.

To vote for Darkman, click here. Please vote as many times as you can so we can get our “Darkman” on the AL All-Star team. He is very deserving of being on the team.

So Red Sox Nation, let’s make our team and “Darkman” proud. Vote away RSN.

2007 MLB Final Vote Balloting

This one comes to you via Awful Announcing. It seems the folks at NHL.com don’t know what teams are in their league anymore. When they announced the Daniel Briere signing with the Philadelphia Flyers, this is what the headline looked like.

[Hat tip to your very own Steve for the tip.]

Is this the greatest knockout ever in boxing? This happened on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on June 29th.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GHPHkmDJgY0[/youtube]

In what turned out to be a battle of the bullpens, the Rangers pen nor the Red Sox pen faltered after both starters left the game. The end result was a 5-4 win for the Rangers, spoiling the debut of Jacoby Ellsbury. Slammin’ Sammy Sosa’s 602nd career homerun in the 5^th ended up being the game winning run after terrible outings from both Robinson Tejada and Josh Beckett.

The local nine struck for 2 runs in the 1^st inning as Tejada struggled with his control. Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis both walked to start the inning. David “Big Papi” Ortiz brought in Pedroia with a single to make it 1-0 Sox. With Manny Ramirez at the plate, both Youk and Big Papi moved up a base as Tejada uncorked a wild pitch. With the infield in, Manny grounded out to third for the first out. With J.D. Drew at the plate, the Rangers decided to intentionally walk him to set up the double play. It also loaded up the bases for Mike Lowell. Lowell brought in Youk with a sacrifice fly giving the Sox a 2-0 lead. Jason Varitek struck out swinging to end the inning.

In the 2^nd inning, Alex Cora led off with a triple. This brought Ellsbury to the plate for his first MLB at bat. It will be one that he won’t forget as he checked his swing and the ball rolled fair and he was tagged out. Pedroia followed that with a strikeout. Youk brought home Cora with a 2-run homer that landed in the top row of the Green Monster seats, making it 4-0 Boston. After the homer, Big Papi worked a walk and Manny was grazed with a pitch. Drew drew another walk loading the bases up for Lowell again. This time Lowell couldn’t get the job done as he flew out to the base of the wall.

The Red Sox threatened again in the 3^rd inning but couldn’t push a run across the plate. Varitek led off the inning with a ground out to second. Cora then had his second extra base hit of the game, this one a double. Ellsbury then beat a deep ground ball to short for his first hit of his young career. When the ball was rolled in, Youk pretended to throw it in the crowd before putting Ellsbury’s first hit ball in the dugout. Pedroia ended the inning with a double play.

Back at the beginning, I had said Beckett was terrible. Well he was brilliant for the first 3 innings as he scattered 2 hits. He then retired the first batter of the 4^th inning before the seams came unglued. After the Young groundout, Slammin’ Sammy singled. Noted Red Sox killer Frank Catalanotto followed with a single that advanced Sosa to third. Marlon Byrd brought in Sosa with a single, with Catalanotto going to third. Brad Wilkerson cleared the bases with a double cutting the Sox lead to 4-3. For some strange reason, Gerald Laird tried to bunt with Beckett struggling with his command. He popped it up to Varitek for the second out of the inning. Ramon Vazquez hit a ball that Cora knocked down, temporarily saving a run. Kenny Lofton continued his hot streak against the Red Sox as he brought Wilkerson in with a single to tie the game at 4. Beckett would finally get out of the inning as he got Jerry Hairston to ground out.

The 5^th inning would provide the last run of the game for either team. After Young struck out, Slammin’ Sammy hit his homerun that just got over the Green Monster, making it 5-4 Rangers. Catalanotto then doubled but Beckett got ground ball outs from Byrd and Wilkerson. This was the last inning that Beckett pitched.

Beckett went 5 innings, giving up 10 hits, 5 runs. He did strikeout 4 batters on 92 pitches.

The game was in the hands of the bullpen at this point. Actually, the Rangers had gone to their bullpen in the 5^th inning, as former Sox outfielder Ron Mahay came in and pitched 2 innings, only allowing 1 hit. Javier Lopez pitched the 6^th inning for the Sox and only Lofton reached base on a walk.

Kyle Snyder set down the Rangers in order in the 7^th inning. Joaquin Benoit pitched the 7^th for the Rangers and only allowed a single to Lowell. Synder allowed one hit to Byrd in the 8^th.

Akinori Otsuka came in for the Rangers in the 8^th inning. Cora led off with a bunt groundout and Ellsbury was retired on a groundout to second base. Pedroia followed with a double and was pinch-run for by the slumping Julio Lugo. Lugo tried to take matters in his own hands and steal third base but was caught stealing with Youk at the plate. It was his first caught stealing of the year and seemed to catch everyone in the Sox dugout by surprise. After the game, Terry Francona said “it was a case of Lugo trying to do too much.”

Mike Timlin came in and worked a 1-2-3 9th inning. The Rangers brought in their closer, Eric Gagne, and he worked a scoreless 9^th for his nineth save of the game.

The Rangers bullpen went 5 innings, allowing three hits while the Sox bullpen went 4 innings, allowing just one hit.

The Sox finished the month of June at 13-14. Julian “Yo-Yo” Tavarez takes the mound for the Red Sox tomorrow and he will look to pick Beckett and the Sox up. Gametime is 2:05 PM.

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According to Nick Cafardo from the Boston Globe, the Red Sox have called up speedy centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury from Pawtucket. A spot on the roster was opened up when Joel Piñero and his gimpy ankle were placed on the 15 day DL.

Cafardo also reports the Ellsbury is in the lineup for tonight’s game and is batting 9th. Ellsbury’s numbers in Portland and Pawtucket this season.

Club	Class	AB	H	AVG	HR	RBI	SB	R	CS	2B	3B	BB	K	E
Pawtucket (INT)	AAA	147	44	.299	0	7	17	29	2	7	3	17	18	3
Portland (EAST)	AA	73	33	.452	0	13	8	16	1	10	2	6	7	2

I guess with Coco Crisp having the jammed thumb and Wily Mo Peña being sketchy in the field and looking like Pedro Cerrano at the plate, this was the next best thing the Sox could do. I don’t expect Ellsbury to be up for long unless he hits well but you can expect him to be running when he is on base.Here’s a look at your future fellow Red Sox Nation fans.